AUSTIN -- Republican leaders pledging to pass anti-transgender bathroom legislation in Texas is not sitting well with some small business owners, who say the decision would severely hurt the economy and represent dangerous government overreach.

The small businesses who signed the pledge -- including 40 in Dallas -- joined the more than 1,100 larger enterprises that have already promised to make the Lone Star State more welcoming for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The Dallas Morning News, as well as American Airlines, Texas Instruments, Dell and Southwest, are among those committed to make Texas more LGBT-friendly.

"We believe Dan Patrick is using this false name to try to pass legislation to discriminate against LGBT Texans," Chuck Smith, CEO of LGBT-rights group Equality Texas, said at an event Tuesday in San Antonio unveiling the small business pledge.

He added, "Texans are smart enough to see through this façade and urge the lieutenant governor to consider the needs of small businesses and the people they employ, instead of pursuing this and other discriminatory legislation."

San Antonio will host the 2018 NCAA Final Four, which could net the local economy tens of millions in business investment. Local business leaders at Tuesday's conference urged state lawmakers to keep this in mind and remember how the NCAA and Atlantic Coast Conference pulled 15 championship events from North Carolina after that state passed its transgender bathroom bill.

"In San Antonio we have already committed millions of tax dollars to upgrades for the 2018 NCAA Final Four," said Jody Bailey Newman, who owns several San Antonio bars and restaurants. "I'm a conservative business owner; anyone who supports discriminatory legislation is anti-business."

"It's not about the transgender issue, it's not about discrimination, it's about protecting women," Patrick said. If the state doesn't pass his bill, he said "we will have women abused, attacked and assaulted -- not by transgender people, by sexual predators."